Testing, testing … and now even more testing
The government is trialling yet another round of tests for pupils in England, Education Guardian can reveal. The move would mean some children facing official assessments in all of the first four years of their education, with Sats in years 2 and 6. New baseline assessments for reception children are due to start from September.
In year 1, pupils already sit a “screening check”, which assesses their ability to decode text. Those failing it currently face a resit in year 2. Now, ministers are to trial a second resit of the phonics check in year 3, for those failing the assessment twice.
Separately, the coalition introduced a spelling, punctuation and grammar assessment for year 6 pupils. The Conservatives have already announced plans to introduce Sats resits in year 7 for pupils who failed to achieve good enough standards in year 6.
The phonics year 3 resit plans were unveiled in a notice on the Department for Education’s website. David Reedy, president of the United Kingdom Literacy Association, tells us: “The government seems to be obsessed with adding more and more high-stakes tests. The danger is that one particular group of children face more of the same, year after year: assessment preparation, then assessment, then repeat. What is needed is a proper diagnostic assessment of their needs.”
A DfE spokesman says: “It is essential that every child can reach their full potential. That is why under a voluntary pilot scheme, the phonics screening check has been extended into year 3.”
Elusive sponsors
Academy status seems to be looming for many schools currently overseen by local authorities that are in Ofsted’s “requires improvement” category. That is the implication of the Conservative election manifesto and comments by Nicky Morgan last week. But how many will truly be forced to take on academy status?
We ask because our analysis of the governance of schools that were already under huge pressure to improve under the coalition government – those graded “inadequate” by Ofsted – suggests that academy sponsorship has never occurred in many cases. This is despite this lowest grade triggering legal intervention powers by ministers.
Out of the 447 English schools currently rated “inadequate”, 240 – more than half – have yet to be converted into academies or recorded by the DfE as planned for academisation. Of these, 123 schools, or 51%, failed their Ofsted a year or more ago – yet still academy sponsorship does not seem to be on the horizon.
Previous DfE threats to turn all primary schools at the bottom of Sats league tables into academies have yet to be borne out in reality, as we have already reported. Is the issue a shortage of sponsors, we wonder.
Our calculations indicate that almost half of the sponsored academies that have had an inspection are themselves rated “inadequate” (12%) – or “requires improvement” (34%). So it remains unclear why academy status should be seen by anyone as a panacea.
Sats marking headache
The computer system with which examiners are marking this year’s Sats tests is facing a string of technical problems, we have learned.
As reported previously, this is the first year when all Sats papers are being marked on screen, with written scripts scanned and sent to markers electronically. Marking began last week.
But an experienced KS2 reading marker tells us that every late afternoon, when markers go online after school, the Pearson ePEN software “starts limping”: freezing for up to a minute after the examiner submits each marked question. Each marker marks hundreds of questions.
Emails from those leading the operation confirm other problems, with one admitting that supervisors are not getting full access to reports on how markers are performing, while another says an online system for responding to markers’ queries about pupils’ answers is not working.
Our source adds that information is being passed from supervisors on how particular questions should be marked mid-way through the marking. She says that, unlike in previous years, the new system gives no opportunity for a marker to go back and correct the grading of previously marked scripts in light of this advice.
A Pearson spokeswoman says: “We have already successfully moved nearly half of [Sats] scripts over to the online marking system over the past two years. The final stage of this process is progressing to schedule this year.”
Powerful interests at work in academy move
Teachers are poised to stage another two days of strike action in protest at plans to turn three south London secondary schools, featured already on these pages, into academies.
Members of the National Union of Teachers and National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers at the Prendergast schools in Lewisham, south London, are due to walk out next Wednesday and Thursday unless the schools’ governors agree to allow a parental ballot on the plans.
Meanwhile, Education Guardian has learned, Frank Green, pictured, England’s national schools commissioner, who oversees the entire academies project for the DfE, has been advising the governors on the Prendergast academy move since last year. The advice is recorded in the DfE’s official register of interest.
A parent source says: “Prendergast parents were shocked to discover Green has been an adviser to the proposal. This shows that academisation is being driven ahead by powerful interests far removed from communities.”
David Sheppard, the schools’ executive headteacher, says: “Governors very much regret that two of the unions have induced their members to take strike action on days when there are important exams. The chair of governors and I met with the schools commissioner and his officials at the DfE in 2014 on one occasion. The DfE register of interests is a matter for the schools commissioner.”
